Batman: Urban Legends #7 had a story leading into Batman Beyond: Neo-Year.

[thanekos]

It opened on Bruce Wayne dead - Bruce Wayne having died of someone " overloading [his] pacemaker ".

He'd told that to Terry McGinnis, who'd found him in the Batcave.

Terry remembered those amongst Bruce's other dying words as he worked to figure out what'd happened.



" Do you remember when you first found this place, Terry?

" You were so angry, so impulsive. A.. thrill seeker.

" I knew right away..



Terry worked his way through the powerful in Gotham.



" And the darkness in the heart of the man holding it. "

Terry came eventually to the " interim CEO " of Wayne-Powers: " Tell me what you know. "



" Like a backdoor built into the system from the very start. "



The interim CEO's office went up in a blast - Terry went out the window.



" In his last moments, he saw past the alley..

" .. to the man I'd become, to the legacy I'd leave behind.

" .. He saw the bat before I did..



Terry fought through Gotham City, through its currents turned against him, back to the Batcave.

The villain addressed him there.



" I am the Living Gotham. "



" .. Batman is dead. "

A Bat-mech controlled by the Living Gotham laid into Terry as he remembered Bruce: " My legacy is fear.



A Batarang applied to a junction box took out most of the cave's infrastructure, including what the Living Gotham was driving Terry's opponent with.

There was enough left for Terry to trigger the blackout protocols via his suit.



" Do not let the flaw in my heart be Batman's legacy. "



The Living Gotham went offline..



.. and came back on.



Terry left, triggering the " contingency burn ".

He got Ace the Bathound out as the cave and Wayne Manor went up, denying the Living Gotham a point of manifestation.



(Pagecount's 9 and under 3/10ths of 29 from a story in Batman: Urban Legends #7 back in November 2021.

Writing's Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing.

Art's Max Dunbar, colors're Sebastian Cheng, and letters're Aditya Bidikar.

Publisher's DC.)

Comments

[lbd_nytetrayn]

1) Is this in-continuity with the other Batman Beyond books?

2) Is this featured in any of the BB trades? Just this one alone on Kindle is PRICEY.

[thanekos]

You could fit it into the Batman Beyond that spun out of Future's End, but nothing in Neo-Year relies on anything specifically established in that.

This story's not in the Neo-Year trade - but Neo-Year #1 recaps everything here by page 2, such that the only thing missed is the Terry & Bruce flashback here.

[blueprintstyles]

The last Batman Beyond comic I read really put me off, but this seems worth a look.

[coldfury]

I love Batman Beyond, so I get why it's so beloved. But it really exists as a fail state for Batman, so that always makes it a downer to be attached to the main Batman continuity.

It represents a Bruce who not only failed in his mission and went into seclusion from his family and friends, but also it represents a bad end for each member of that family. For us to get to Batman Beyond, the show had to hand wave what happened to Dick & Tim, and only gave the vaguest of explanations for Barbara. The movie at least gave us a story for Tim, but that was depressing as hell. And the Batwoman movie makes it pretty easy to connect the dots on Dick, but let's not keep any part of Bruce/Babs anywhere near canon.

But as time has dragged on, you then have to take into account Stephanie, Cass, Jason, Duke, and gods... Damian? A future where a decrepit Bruce has no contact with any of his kids is just a sad story as an endgame for Batman.

So while I love Terry, I love the show, and I love the idea of a new Batman for a new age guided by the old, having it attached to the DC Universe as a possible future has always left a sour taste in my mouth, because it shows that Batman just straight up fails in the end.

I feel like what they needed to do was to update it to be a little less bleak, take a more positive spin on the extended Bat-fam, and reboot it with a Terry with an extended family, even if they're in the wings because life has moved them to different places or phases of their lives.

But then again, we don't need another Batman Beyond reboot, either. It's starting to smell like the Legion up in here.

[superfangirl1]

It makes some sense that Terry would see things with a more pessimistic look, that is not mostly necessarily means it was true.
Terry still believes in Batman and in Bruce. With Terry going as far as to say that Bruce was the only good man in Gotham city and that he was the only thing stopping from tearing itself apart.

Even "Gotham" itself acknowledges it. I think this supports that Batman did in fact caused a good impact for the city.